An Afghan policeman killed nine of his fellow officers as they lay
sleeping in a village in the eastern Paktika province today, police
said, blaming the attack on the Taliban. The gunman was assigned to a
small command post when he woke up at 3am for guard duty. He then used
his assault rifle to kill the nine men sleeping inside the post, took
their weapons and piled them in a pickup truck before speeding away in
the truck.

The motive for the killing was not known, but police
in the area blamed the Taliban for the attack. Paktika is a stronghold
of the Haqqani network, a Pakistani-based group with ties to the Taliban
and al-Qaeda. Although they mostly attack US-led coalition forces, they
have often carried out assaults and bombings against the Afghan army
and police. Meanwhile, NATO said today that two of its service members
were killed in southern Afghanistan. They said one died in a roadside
bomb explosion today and the other one in an insurgent attack that took
place yesterday.